Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who signed with the Texans as a free agent in March, is an early favorite to be the team's starter in Week 1 against the Washington Redskins.

Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who signed with the Texans as a free...

The man who may lead them has never been an annual winner, began his crisscrossed career as the fourth quarterback in a three-quarterback system and waited until the 250th overall pick of the NFL draft to become a pro.

The man who could lead them holds a 27-49-1 lifetime record, is on his fifth team in 10 years and wouldn't be a Week 1 starter on a 2014 playoff contender.

The man expected to lead them is hipster cool compared to the bland vanilla of the Texans' previous two long-term starting quarterbacks, Matt Schaub and David Carr. He's a thickly bearded 31-year-old who wears an Avengers T-shirt and Transformers baseball cap, not out of irony but in pride. He falls somewhere between the social stereotypes of cool dad, journeyman hippie and highly educated Harvard dude.

The man is Ryan Fitzpatrick. First-year coach Bill O'Brien's handpicked selection to potentially guide the initial stage of an organizational rebuild, master a complex new offense and unite a once-fractured team that spent much of the Gary Kubiak era blindly searching for leadership and a beating heart.

Fitzpatrick long ago figured out and came to terms with who he is - an atypical NFL quarterback who balances his love of family with a belief in the power of an ego-less team.

"Be who you are is really how I would put it," said the 6-2, 223-pound Fitzpatrick, who was born in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Ariz., selected in the seventh round by St. Louis in 2005 and also has played for Cincinnati, Buffalo and Tennessee.

The Texans will spend the rest of 2014 figuring out, molding and maximizing the best of Fitzpatrick. On paper, the combination of an NFL-worst 2-14 team in 2013 and a game-managing quarterback with a top seasonal mark of 4-4 under center has less-than-average written all over it. But O'Brien believes in Fitzpatrick and a confident, decade-tested quarterback fully believes in himself.

"We really liked his intelligence," O'Brien said. "We liked the fact that he had played a bunch of football. … We felt what was best for the Houston Texans was to find a good fit at quarterback for our system. He was the guy that we thought fit that."

Career connections

Fitzpatrick felt a bond with the Texans before he was even pursued.

When O'Brien began assembling his first pro staff, respected but largely unknown names from the coach's previous runs with Penn State and the New England Patriots were called upon. Some criticized O'Brien for not taking a traditional NFL route. Fitzpatrick immediately knew he might have found a new football home.

Texans wide receivers coach Stan Hixon was in Buffalo when Fitzpatrick started for the Bills. Special teams coach Bob Ligashesky was in St. Louis when Fitzpatrick was a rookie Ram. Secondary coach John Butler was at Harvard when Fitzpatrick wore crimson. Tight ends coach John Perry once tried to get Fitzpatrick to come to Dartmouth. Texans coaches Bill Kollar, Craig Fitzgerald and Sean Hayes also saw their life paths cross with Fitzpatrick's.

For an aging quarterback who entered the league in 2005 as the fourth option in the Rams' three-quarterback set, then unexpectedly debuted in Week 12 with a 310-yard, three-touchdown outburst via a come-from-behind victory against the Texans, a two-year deal worth $7.25 million was simply the knot that tied a full-circle bind.

"I was just looking at his staff, and there were so many people from my past. … I was just sitting there thinking, 'Man, I'm getting old,' " Fitzpatrick said.

No sure option at QB

Despite trading away a fallen seven-year starter in Schaub, the Texans didn't add another quarterback until the fourth round of the 2014 draft, content to enter organized team activities with Case Keenum, T.J. Yates, rookie Tom Savage, Fitzpatrick and a combined 29-60-1 career QB record.

Quarterbacks coach George Godsey and O'Brien believe that if Fitzpatrick's turnovers are minimized and his strengths are accentuated, the Texans have the potential to "develop" a veteran, system-based quarterback. If the experiment works, Fitzpatrick will rely on running back Arian Foster, three tight ends, wide receivers Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins, and a new emphasis on a slot receiver to win tight games.

Defense should carry the Texans in 2014. The offense just has to hold its own weight.

"It's about decision-making," O'Brien said. "Not forcing the ball and understanding that you have a really good back out of the backfield in Foster that you can always check it down to. … We believe in our system. But at the end of the day, Ryan, he needs to go out there and make good decisions and make sure he is doing what is best for the team."

To NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell, Fitzpatrick could be the perfect answer for the 2014 Texans. The positives: good arm, high intelligence, legit experience, a natural feel for the position. The negatives: limited athleticism, occasionally frenetic in the pocket, random regrettable throws that can immediately turn games upside down.

Fitzpatrick never was and never will be confused for an elite starter. But if "gray areas" are removed, his assets are harnessed and his role is clearly defined - throw here and here, never there - a team searching since 2002 for a franchise quarterback could have an unexpected winner this season.

"A quarterback like Fitzpatrick can sometimes be exposed, which is why he's Ryan Fitzpatrick and not Tom Brady," Cosell said. "But for the most part, I think Bill sees a guy that he can really manipulate, in a positive sense, and control … and get the most out of him."

Frerotte an influence

The quarterback who shaped Fitzpatrick was also rarely a winner and exited the game as a career loser.

From 1994-2008, Gus Frerotte played 15 seasons for seven teams. He passed for a career-high 3,453 yards in 1996 with Washington and five times started at least 11 games in a year. He also held a 45-47-1 career record, threw nearly as many interceptions (106) as touchdowns (114) and exited the league after guiding Minnesota to the playoffs, watching Brett Favre take over the Vikings.

During Fitzpatrick's second season and Frerotte's 13th, the always-prove-'em-wrong duo bonded. Frerotte saw a protégé in Fitzpatrick. The latter discovered a mentor who prized the truth of friends over the flash of fame.

"We're very similar. We love our families; we love our wives," Frerotte, 42, said. "He's not into peer pressure. He is who he is. … He's going to do what he thinks is right and is good for him and his family. And he's going to do what the team wants."

What Frerotte initially wanted was for Fitzpatrick to slow down. In 2006, the veteran backup and St. Louis starter Mark Bulger were used to running offseason sprints a specific way. A Harvard kid sweating 20 yards ahead of them was wrecking their system.

"Look, dude, you're either gonna run with the receivers or you're gonna slow it down a little bit. That's just how it's going to go," Frerotte recalled saying. "We were older and were veterans, and we were messing with him."

Fitzpatrick has stayed close with Frerotte ever since. The quarterback who saw it all has turned into a trusted sounding board. When Fitzpatrick was going through the final stage of deciding whether to become a Texan, Frerotte eased him through another change.

"Not just football stuff but life with the kids and everything he went through," Fitzpatrick said. "He's been a rock for me."

Now, there's another Frerotte lesson that Fitzpatrick is living: As long as you can play, your career isn't over until you want it to be.

"If you had asked me 10 years ago, 'If you had a 10-year career, would you be happy with it?' I'd have said, 'Yeah,' " Fitzpatrick said. "But for me, I think there's a lot of unfinished business, in terms of things that I want to do and prove and things that I expect out of myself that I still haven't done."

Family man

Fitzpatrick's four children (1, 3, 5, 7) are fine with just having a dad.

"Offseason babies," he said.

While O'Brien shapes the Texans and molds his veteran quarterback, Fitzpatrick shifts between Houston and his former home of Nashville, Tenn. Alone time has allowed him to soak up another new system. Brief family time nearly 800 miles away has reminded Fitzpatrick of the downside of football life.

"It's been good and bad, because I've been missing them like crazy," Fitzpatrick said. "But I've also had a lot of time to really dive into this playbook and spend a lot of time studying it."

When Fitzpatrick has been able to play dad, he's been himself. His boys love superhero movies - thus the Avengers T-shirt and Transformers hat - and watched "The Lego Movie" several times with their dad. Multiple viewings of "Frozen" with Fitzpatrick's daughter balanced out the love. Then there's golf, basketball and a makeshift slip-and-slide in the family's backyard.

"I'm just a big kid," Fitzpatrick said.

If 2-14 becomes a respectable record this season and O'Brien finds his temporary answer in Fitzpatrick, Texans fans will have something in 2014 that seemed impossible during the Carr and Schaub years: a cool, funny, likeable quarterback who's also a winner.

"I love to play this game. I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity that I have," Fitzpatrick said. "Every season, I just reflect back to my rookie year and being the fourth-string guy, not even thinking I was going to make the team, just kind of how far I've come. … If I didn't still enjoy playing, I definitely wouldn't be here."